Comparing Five Music Players

There are so many choices of music players for Linux, it's hard to know which one will work best for you.

Scripts and Plugins

In free software, music players are second only to Firefox and
OpenOffice.org in their efforts to extend functionality by creating a
community of plugin writers. With each player, many of these plugins
automate specific Internet sources. Other plugins alter the interface
or add features.

Rhythmbox provides no means for easily browsing or installing new
plugins. Because the functionality provided often is standard on the
other players (such as finding cover art), the impression is either
that few people are writing plugins for Rhythmbox or that the
project conceives plugins as a way of providing a smaller standard code
base. Banshee similarly has a limited number of plugins, including some
that could be standard features, although it does distinguish itself with
extensions for creating bookmarks and detecting BPM (beats per minute).

By contrast, the other three players have a much richer ecosystem of
plugins. Songbird distinguishes itself by add-ons for creating a mash
tape or for learning about upcoming local concerts. Amarok's plugins
are focused largely on providing alternative sources for lyrics and
for automated logon to Internet sources, many of them (such as those
for CBC radio or on-line readings of the Koran) obviously intended for
specific local audiences. Only a few of Amarok's scripts, such as the
script for copying the current song information into the clipboard, are
intended to extend functionality, perhaps in part because the Amarok 2.x
series of releases is relatively new, and at least until recently,
developers were busy providing basic functionality that users missed
from the 1.x series of releases.

The most varied set of plugins for functionality is found in Exaile. For
example, you can add plugins to display cover art with an album or on
the desktop, set an alarm, enable support for Metacity hot keys in GNOME,
reduce the window to a minimal size and many other possibilities. Among
this variety, Exaile's lack of a control for adding new plugins seems
a strange oversight.

Ranking:

Amarok and Exaile (tie—both are varied but have
different priorities)

Songbird

Banshee

Rhythmbox

Additional Features and Customization

All five players have features that do not fit neatly into other
categories. Rhythmbox's are modest: a minimal window and a full-screen
mode, and visualization—a random pattern that displays while music
is playing. Banshee's are almost as modest, with options for how files
and the local music collection are handled.

With Exaile, the other features start to get more interesting. Exaile
includes a blacklist manager, so you can exclude tracks that you prefer
not to hear but are not ready to delete, as well as commands within the
context menu to burn selections to CD/DVD.

In comparison, Amarok's extras are largely practical. They include the
ability to reposition notifications (which can come in handy if they
block your set of icons) and the ability to edit database settings. An
especially useful feature is the storage of passwords to sites in KDE
Wallet to keep them secure while making them easily accessible. However,
if you do not use on-line sites often, you may find logging in to KDE
Wallet each time you start Amarok irksome.

In keeping with its Web origins, Songbird has a strong emphasis on
privacy and security. It has Firefox-like controls for ensuring privacy,
including a Clear Private Data feature. Also like Firefox, it can store
passwords for sites and use a master password to save you the effort of
remembering the other ones. Songbird preferences also include a page in
which you can choose what information you want to share with sites that
you log in to. Still another sign of its Web orientation is a tab in the
preferences for setting up how you use iTunes.

Ranking:

Songbird

Amarok

Exaile

Banshee and Rhythmbox (tie)

Choosing a Music Player

I awarded one point for a first-place finish, two for a second-place
finish and so on, which means a low score is better. Tallying the
results, Amarok gets first place with 8 points, with Exaile and
Songbird tied for second, with 15 points apiece. They were
followed by Banshee with 20 and Rhythmbox with 26.

These results don't tell the whole story. For instance, many uses will
reject Banshee automatically because it depends on Mono.
Others might prefer Banshee because it is GNOME-based
or Rhythmbox because it includes a minimal feature set.

Just as important, I could have included at least five
more players. When you consider Audacious, Listen, Quod Libet and
Sonata, you realize just how broad the selection of free music players
is. However, I selected these either because they are the default
players with most distributions or because they have a substantial cult
following. For better or worse, they are the most popular music players
on the free desktop at the time of this writing.

However, even if you do not take the ranking as absolute, the reasons
behind the rankings may help you decide which player is right for you. This
exercise also suggests something about the current state of music
players, with Amarok well in the lead and Rhythmbox fading, and the
others sometimes sporting innovative features but failing to mount a
general challenge to Amarok's dominance in the field.

Bruce Byfield is a computer journalist who covers free and open-source
software. He has been a contributing editor at Maximum
Linux and Linux.com,
and he currently is doing a column and a blog for Linux Pro
Magazine. His
articles appear regularly on such sites as Datamation, LinuxJournal.com and
Linux Planet. His article, “11 Tips for Moving to
OpenOffice.org” was the
cover
story for the March 2004 issue of Linux Journal.

Comment viewing options

I'm a simple user, with simple needs. Just need an easy to use media player to play my mp3/wma files. I tried to use Amarok lots of times, but beside it makes me remember the stupid itunes, is also a very annoying. Only Audacious allows me to select a folder o more, put them on a playlist and press play button, after that I minimize the frontend, so why loose resources or time with visual stuffs?
I think you should also analyze and compare this players tested with Audacious.

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